Recently a silly old man from Tamil Nadu was crying foul that he is not getting royalties for his music. Whenever they play his songs on TV or radio or perform it on stage, he expects a share of profit or at least he wants them to seek his permission. While the tyrannical copyright laws facilitate such inhuman extortion, where is the Free Software equivalent of Music? Software industry itself has its origin after the advent of copyright laws. But music is older than Homo sapiens species itself! Greatest works of music known to us were already centuries old when the crude copyrights laws were made. Except few hegemonic and anti-human societies, where advances in science and creativeness in arts were reserved to few group of people (and far worse in cases where it is locked down to people born in to particular family/community), world, at large, always shared knowledge and publicized creativity to the masses. So in this post-human world, are there real humans still left to share their knowledge and creativity to others? May be! They may be very few. But such people are for real. Here are some great sites which allow you access as well as to share music with lesser restrictive licenses.
1. opsound.org
Opsound is a site by Sal Randolph. inspired by free software and applies its philosophy to music. Musicians and sound artists can add their work to the Opsound repository using any of the copyleft licenses developed by Creative Commons. Everyone can download, share, remix, and reimagine music available in their site.
2. freemusicarchive.org
This site hosts lot of MP3 files and they also have apps for iOS and Android devices to access their content. Instead of modeling themselves purely after a later idea like Free Software, they also draw inspiration from Radio! They want to continue what radio did in previous generations, i.e. provide people with free music. Artists can upload their music in whole or part (and hence can attract more customers) and people can enjoy the music without any registration.
3. openmusicarchive.org
Artists Ben White & Eileen Simpson have started this project so that music works whose copyright term has expired and in public domain can be made available to a wider audience through internet. Music with no economic value which are usually forgotten by mainstream record companies are given a second life after their copyright term. Also the site encourages more people to collaborate and make their music publicly accessible.
4. cpdl.org
Is there a Wikipeida of music? Yes, it is cpdl.org. They have a large number of sheet music and music files (MIDI and other formats) in their archive. They host only "free" music without any restrictions even under the funny Mickey Mouse Law of USA. Since its inception in 2005, it has grown to a colossal collection of more than 25,000 scores by more than 2,800 composers.
5. musopen.org
A non-profit organization that aims to provide free sheet music, lessons and books for teaching music. Not only serving as a platform to share music, musopen.org aims to make music education reachable to more people.
What will happen if humans have no civilization or government? Do you think we will be killing each other for food and other needs? Do you think that survival of the fittest means "do whatever to survive"? The answer is "NO!". All communities of humans, be it from so called civilized cities to hunter-gatherers of dense forest, evolved to live a social and community life. Even our non-human ancestors lived in groups and not as "individuals with a will to survive at any cost". Our evolution has shaped us to be co-operative, collaborative and altruistic to some extant. The cut-throat competition and "survival-of-the-fittest" mantra we hear again and again are just modern and unnatural inventions which are making our way of life less and less sustainable. We shared everything before from land to food. Then slowly everything was taken out of the common ownership. The last thing remained in collective ownership was knowledge and creativity as they are inexhaustible resources. But human greed knows no limit and it has even snatched these inexhaustible resources from collective ownership. So to reverse the whole set of damage we have brought on our species and on the planet, we have to start from reversing the latest mistake. By liberating knowledge and setting it free, we can start the process of setting the entire humanity free!
1. opsound.org
Opsound is a site by Sal Randolph. inspired by free software and applies its philosophy to music. Musicians and sound artists can add their work to the Opsound repository using any of the copyleft licenses developed by Creative Commons. Everyone can download, share, remix, and reimagine music available in their site.
2. freemusicarchive.org
This site hosts lot of MP3 files and they also have apps for iOS and Android devices to access their content. Instead of modeling themselves purely after a later idea like Free Software, they also draw inspiration from Radio! They want to continue what radio did in previous generations, i.e. provide people with free music. Artists can upload their music in whole or part (and hence can attract more customers) and people can enjoy the music without any registration.
3. openmusicarchive.org
Artists Ben White & Eileen Simpson have started this project so that music works whose copyright term has expired and in public domain can be made available to a wider audience through internet. Music with no economic value which are usually forgotten by mainstream record companies are given a second life after their copyright term. Also the site encourages more people to collaborate and make their music publicly accessible.
4. cpdl.org
Is there a Wikipeida of music? Yes, it is cpdl.org. They have a large number of sheet music and music files (MIDI and other formats) in their archive. They host only "free" music without any restrictions even under the funny Mickey Mouse Law of USA. Since its inception in 2005, it has grown to a colossal collection of more than 25,000 scores by more than 2,800 composers.
5. musopen.org
A non-profit organization that aims to provide free sheet music, lessons and books for teaching music. Not only serving as a platform to share music, musopen.org aims to make music education reachable to more people.
What will happen if humans have no civilization or government? Do you think we will be killing each other for food and other needs? Do you think that survival of the fittest means "do whatever to survive"? The answer is "NO!". All communities of humans, be it from so called civilized cities to hunter-gatherers of dense forest, evolved to live a social and community life. Even our non-human ancestors lived in groups and not as "individuals with a will to survive at any cost". Our evolution has shaped us to be co-operative, collaborative and altruistic to some extant. The cut-throat competition and "survival-of-the-fittest" mantra we hear again and again are just modern and unnatural inventions which are making our way of life less and less sustainable. We shared everything before from land to food. Then slowly everything was taken out of the common ownership. The last thing remained in collective ownership was knowledge and creativity as they are inexhaustible resources. But human greed knows no limit and it has even snatched these inexhaustible resources from collective ownership. So to reverse the whole set of damage we have brought on our species and on the planet, we have to start from reversing the latest mistake. By liberating knowledge and setting it free, we can start the process of setting the entire humanity free!
4 comments:
very nice article. but isn't co-operation only among our species? may be we leave out our pets or animals we domesticated. But we do consume others right. Because they are less capable than us, they are falling prey to us.
Was actually discussing about GST and co-operation with a colleague?
they say one country-one tax, but no one says one country-one water, states do fight for water resources. Then how can they nationalize revenue made from those resources? and ask people to cooperate in sharing that revenue.
I feel survival of the fittest is still valid. We need to adapt ourselves to changing conditions to survive. Dinosaurs got extinct because they could adapt to the drastic change in climatic conditions right.
// may be we leave out our pets or animals we domesticated. But we do consume others right. Because they are less capable than us, they are falling prey to us. //
We consume others. But where should we stop with the definition of "others"? Will it include mosquito? Or can we extend it to polio virus? What about plants? Every rice grain is a fetus. Carrot, onion, radish are all killed for our food. Also agriculture is the worst human invention that has caused extinction of many species. All land used to grow only one type of crop today were biologically diverse abodes for thousands of species before we converted them to agricultural lands. Hunter gatherers on the other hand have a more sustainable and eco-friendly life. But it is impossible to revert back to such lifestyle. So using agricultural waste to feed on cattle and poultry and farming fresh water fish for food are all valid ways for sustainable future.
GST is a good move. If the government listens to feedback and makes required changes in one or two years, GST will benefit the nation.
"Survival of the fittest" in Darwinian sense is true. Science is clear on that. But "survival of the fittest" phrase as handled by capitalism is not correct. They use this to justify unethical behaviors, monopoly, cut-throat competition, ruthless and unsustainable growth. Seed patents, vaccine patents and other such evils are justified as corporate survival tactics. It is neither natural nor ethical. Nature has counter-acting forces to evolution in one species. No species gets an undue advantage in the process of survival. And once it looses its advantage, it becomes extinct. But corporates always get undue advantages against small players and they install such mindset even among children through media. Now a days, it is ok to cheat to get first mark. It is ok to bribe to get a college seat. It is acceptable to take dowry. All in the logic of "survival".
Yes "survival of the fittest" depends on the context. very true that people are using that arguement in all other ways to their benefit.
I dont the knitty-gritty of gst, but I feel it is a hindrance to federalism as it gives the power of laying taxes only with the centre. I feel this takes away the financial independence of states.
Even when TN/united AP were top contributors to gdp, there was no respect to our languages. I dont think it will improve now. Also we are all diverse groups/ethinicities of people, not homogeneous.
we should have more devolution of powers to states, lest we become like SL.
Ofcourse, these are only my views, I can be wrong. I totally agree with your views on agriculture. Actually I found your tamil post bursting the myths of organic food eye-opening.
Your argument in GST impacting federalism is somewhat correct. But the collective called Indian Unions should in some way take the wealth from richer states and distribute it to poorer states. If you take a close look at European Union, rich countries contribute more.
Language problem is entirely a different topic. Even if we don't contribute to GDP, we still have the right for cultural identity and our languages should be given prominence in our states. Co-operation in economic front can't be mistaken for giving up our language or food habits to become a monolithic nation.
I am not an expert either in agriculture or in biology. So all of these articles are just my opinions. You are always welcome to question them and point out my mistakes.
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